Posts tagged with "music"

If you’re anything like me, you opted to watch the Blackhawks game instead of the Grammys. Although it was a heartbreaking Hawks loss, I would still choose it over the Grammys. Don’t get me wrong – I REALLY dig music. The Grammys just have a little too much hoopla for me. Sounds like I missed some epic performances: Beyonce & Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar & Imagine Dragons, not to mention Taylor Swift’s dance moves and a giant wedding ceremony. Luckily, coverage was pretty thorough; a web search delivered dozens of clips to accompany my morning coffee!

For all of you aspiring musicians, check out our Battle of the Recorded Bands contest: YOU could play a live show to kick off the library's summer reading program!

Have you ever read a book and felt like there should be a playlist to go along with it? Sometimes it’s really obvious, like there are actual songs referenced in the novel (hint hint). Other times the characters, themes, situations, or settings may just remind you of a track, album, or artist.

To kick off Teen Tech Week (March 9th-15th), we’re having a contest featuring some tunes from the library’s collection. You can check out any of these songs on their respective CDs or on Hoopla, a streaming service you can use with your library card!

One last thing: you have until the end of the month to submit an entry for our Battle of the Recorded Bands contest. We have prizes donated by Guitar Center to give away and other goodies, including a live gig at the library to kick off the summer!

Last Friday, the HUB became the hottest karaoke stage in town! We had tons of kids sing some great songs by Bruno Mars, Imagine Dragons, and even a song from the movie Frozen. As you can see in the photos below, we had a lot of fun. A bunch of performers wore some pretty nifty costumes (provided by Arlington Heights' Metropolis Performing Arts Center) and some HUB staff was even persuaded to perform.

Last Thursday, the AHML Studio was a hotbed of creativity. A bunch of aspiring musicians and producers showed up for our Become a Remix Master program, and took what was originally a pretty simple, unoriginal, and dumb song (we literally titled it DUMB SONG) and used the Studio's tools to alter and adjust different parts of the song into some really exciting and original remixes.

(All of this practice as producers and remixers gave teens the skills they need for our Battle of the Recorded Bands, where teen musicians record and submit songs to win awesome prizes like TicketMaster gift cards, raffles from Guitar Center, and chances to perform at HUB programs. If you're interested in participating, check out the site or send us an email.)

We first went over how the song was created in Garage Band. Give the original DUMB SONG a listen:

We learned how to change instruments, adjust the tempo, and overlay filters using GarageBand. Then the teens each got a copy of the original DUMB SONG file and took over the Studio.

Using some of the awesome Studio tools like our vocal booth and instruments, they each made their own remixes. Teens only had about an hour and a half to remix. Some remixes ended up being more different or similar to the originals, or that much more complex, depending on what directions and tools teens decided to go with. Teens changed up the instruments, wrote new musical parts, and even did some super creative things with sound effects.

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So here they are, some awesome teen remixes. Despite their titles, these songs are notably NOT dumb.